DNA tests for targets in ballot-fraud probe

Judge Stephen W. Herrick on Tuesday morning granted a special prosecutor’s request for a search warrant that seeks saliva samples from two Troy officials, Councilman Michael LoPorto and city Clerk William McInerney. DNA from their saliva will be compared with DNA collected from fraudulent absentee voting ballots filed in the September 2009 primary election in Troy. The investigation has targeted nine people, all Democrats, who were allegedly involved in gathering ballots for the Working Families Party primary last year. The others have submitted DNA samples or agreed to do so. LoPorto stood outside and chatted briefly with reporters after the hearing, but his attorney cut it off when LoPorto was asked whether he was involved with the fraud. McInerney hustled away from the courthouse and refused to even look back at a reporter who tried to ask him a question about the case. It’s unclear whether he went back to his job at Troy City Hall. Trey Smith, the special prosecutor, referred to McInerney in court Tuesday as “a link in a chain of criminality.”